Logistics Startup FR8 Revolution Raises Up To $8.5MM Series A Funding Led By Volkswagen Truck & Bus Subsidiary
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 30, 2016 -- FR8 Revolution, Inc. (http://fr8.guru/), a Silicon Valley-based startup that develops free cloud-based tools to improve efficiency in the $700B US freight trucking market, today announced that it has raised up to $8.5MM from German company MAN Truck & Bus AG, a Volkswagen Truck & Bus subsidiary and leading global supplier of commercial vehicles and transport solutions. The Series A round brings the total investment in FR8 Revolution to nearly $10MM and will help the company scale its operations and product development, allowing it to expand deeper into the networked transportation sector.
Freight transportation in the United States is a major industry with every truck fleet or “carrier” seeking to optimize its routes to avoid backhauling empty trucks. Few carriers today have adequate tools to effectively manage their excess capacity. As a result, most available capacity is sold to shippers through a network of 12,000 freight brokers. This secondary market, known as the “Spot Market,” accounts for a seventh of the total freight trucking market or roughly $100B. Coordination between brokers and carriers typically occurs by phone, email and fax creating a fragmented, inefficient, and opaque marketplace, in which it is difficult for carriers to fully utilize their trucks and shippers to compare prices and get consistent fees.
“What FR8 Revolution is doing is providing the entire ecosystem with a real-time transparent platform to help carriers fill their trucks, shippers see actual capacity and drivers gain some control over their lives,” said Matthew Kropp, CEO of FR8 Revolution. “We are digitizing a market ripe for disruption and today’s investment and partnership by Volkswagen-MAN will help us accelerate this vision.”
FR8 Revolution is currently in Beta with a planned launch this summer for its open platform, which is delivered via the web and mobile and integrates into a variety of carrier systems.
The company was incubated by BCG Digital Ventures, a global corporate investment and incubation firm, which invents, builds, scales and invests in startups with the world’s most important companies. FR8 Revolution represents one among many high-profile incubations for BCG Digital Ventures in recent months.
About FR8 Revolution
Founded in 2015, FR8 Revolution builds smart, data-driven, cloud-based tools aimed at reducing inefficiencies in the $700B US trucking market that result in lost revenue, more pollution and traffic, and poor working conditions for the millions of drivers it employs. FR8’s free tools help carriers manage their fleet schedules, identify available capacity on freight truck routes, and sell this capacity to shippers that need it. The platform allows shippers to manage and track their spot loads in real time and the FR8 mobile app provides truck drivers with tools to manage their life on the road.
At FR8, we have the ideas, ambition, and resources to lead a technological revolution inventing the next wave of technology to drive the industry that drives our economy.
Jeff Koo, FR8 Revolution, http://fr8.guru/, +1 (415) 321-1866, [email protected]
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